October 2011

October 12, 2011

We miss blogs and message boards. They were the place to have nice threaded conversations, until Facebook and Twitter came along. Problem with Twitter is good info/convos can go unnoticed if you weren't around at the exact time they're happening. So maybe we're starting a new feature here with "Twitter Threads". Or this may be the first and last. Anyhoo...

There was a good Twitter convo on Wednesday as some news leaked out that ... we'll let some dude's tweets explain:

Yes. It looks as if Fresno PD is "requesting" Tower businesses to "Pay us or else!" Which sounds like...

The Mob. It sounds like something the Mob would do. And something they sorta tried before and it didn't work so well.

Really though? Bravo, Fresno PD. Genius. You gave us a great idea to finally start making some money on The Fresnan. From now on, anytime a venue or band is mentioned in a post, they owe us $16.

October 11, 2011

Just in case there is maybe one Fresnan reader that would go to a Bel-Tower or CYC show but doesn't follow the venue's Facebook page closely enough to know when shows are happening there, here is what's happening at The Bel-Tower tonight:

October 07, 2011

Things are feeling a little bit light this weekend. Alright, well, Saturday does have some choices but the best show will be out in Madera. So yeah, imagine that. Doesn't matter whether it's in Fresno or Madera, we're still gonna Bandgeek!:

BACKSTREET BAR: There a plenty of chances to do mini road trips for shows in Visalia and even Merced. But it's rare for one to pop up in Madera. Well this is a good one and it's to help pay for funeral expenses for a family related to Buffalo Guns. Five solid bands and more are playing: Ten Till Diez, All Nite Pilots, Say Swear, Buffalo Guns and a return of the Grand Armada. A guitar will also be auctioned off to help raise funds:

We think this is bad. The PBID (it's like a board of people that own property in Downtown or something) voted to support tearing out the Fulton Mall and putting in some of that new fangled asphalt everyone talks about. This is bad, no? Seems like things are heading towards the City Of Fresno bringing back cars on the Fulton Mall. Art and uniqueness be damned.

Some folks say this will bring more people on the Fulton Mall ... actually it would just be Fulton. Yeah, that does sound right given Fresnans car driving ways. But then Fashion Fair and River Park do just fine without traffic. We're confused.

Maybe we should do a trial run and open up traffic to Manchester Center and see how that goes.

October 05, 2011

This seems like one of those kind of shows you'll remember for a while. Paris (yes, the real Paris) expierimental jazz band, The Kandinsky Effect, is stopping by Tokyo Garden tonight. Should be some good stuff for any lover of music. Tickets are $10, $8 with student ID. Show starts around 7pm.

October 04, 2011

Just out Tuesday, hot off the interents is Rademacher's Babyhawk (Part II of III). You can download the indie out of it immediately by going to their Bandcamp page.

It so happens Rademacher is having a CD release party for Babyhawk (Part II of III) Thursday night at Fulton 55 and they'd like one Fresnan reader to win a pair of tickets to the show, along with a digital copy of Babyhawk (Part II of III). Right neighborly of them.

To enter the contest, leave a comment on this post that tells us what your favorite all-time Rademacher song is (I think ours is "If You Got Some Magic") and you're in - make sure to leave a good email where it asks.

Contest Rules: Entries will be cut off at 3pm Fresno time on Wednesday. One entry per person (we have ways of knowing, jerkface). Winner is chosen by our Randomizer (name pulled out of Oakland A's hat). Don't be a douche if you lose.

Everybody else, meet up with the winners at Fulton 55 on Thursday. Light FM and Glasslands will be there too:

October 03, 2011

Best of Fresno times for us, Friday and Saturday night. The 4th Fresno Urban Sound Expierence happend with Fresno's music community, supporters of Downtown and the arts, and just regular dudes, all coming together to have a good time, showing how fun Fresno actually is.

Highlights

>As with all of the FUSE Fests, the walking around, bouncing back and forth between all the venues was cool. Folks were starting to get the hang of it on Saturday as nice groups of Fresnans were roaming to and from the Ironbird Lofts and African-American Histroy Museum stage as each set ended and the other began.

>Festival goers that couldn't tell you what the diffrence is between Rademacher and Azazel but went and had fun anyway.

>The festival within the festival "Eli Fest" at Club One. Drummer Eli Reyes drummed for five bands straight through the night, and didn't die or nothin'. The room was mostly packed all night too.

>Downtowners that happen to be walking by and getting a free show at Iron Bird and AAHM and really enjoying the music.

>All the bands seemed to have a blast no matter how big or small their crowd was.

>Musicians from different genres checking out other band's sets, being impressed and saying "how good these guys are" even though the music wasn't there thing.

Lowlights

>Not enough festival goers getting over to see the Downtown Club venue. Great Fresno spot and good music that was missed for the most part. Certainly the last second venue change had something to do with that.

>On Saturday there were two stages outside Iron Bird Lofts. Most of the lofts have a balcony and those that live on the East and South sides could watch and listen to said stages to their hearts content. Nobody did ... except for one dude that came out to have a smoke then went back in. What the hell? You have a freaking music festival happening outside your balcony and you don't hang and check it out? Ya don't have a party during the festival and jump down, listen to some music, jump back up and keep partying? Sorry Iron Bird Loft people but you're fucking lame.

>Nobody shows up to the bands playing early. Not sure if that's a Fresno thing or what. You guys missed out on Sounds & Sciences, they kick core ass.

>There are a lot of local bands, good bands, with NO following. No regulars that come to see a show of their favorite Fresno band, regardless of where they're playing. Yes, there are a few that have that, but more don't than do. Kinda weird to us but whatever.

Buzz Bands

Bands or sets that we saw that we were impressed by or ones we heard folks talking a lot about were the Sunburns, Kevin Hill Blowout, Dia Del Astronauta, Distrito Torre, B-Rawcity, Westerns, Let's Go Bowling, College Kids, Lezayr, The Dirty Stomp, It'll Grow Back, Abigail Nolte, Boxcar Figero and pretty much everyone that played at Hero's - upper tier musicianship right there.

Something To Take With You

One thing to remember Fresnans for next year and when you go out to enjoy bands around town in general: Crowd the stage. Yeah, we get not doing it when it's something mellow or whatever. But mostly this is a sign of respect to the bands and a way to experience the music more intensely. Fresnans are notorious for sitting in the back of the room and nodding.

Guess Fresnans need to get educated. Maybe we'll learn that before FUSE 2012.

DORKTOWN PODCAST

What is this?

The Fresnan is a blog drunk on Fresno's sweet sweet booze.
We like posting about local music and random Fresno culture junk. We like Downtown, tri-tip, South of Shaw battles, tamales and remembering when there was a fig orchard at Herndon & Palm. We like to occasionally go to River Park but tell people we never go there.